I have to respond to a couple of posts in this thread, I'll start with this one.
ATI has been the in crapper financially, but then so has nvidia. Remember that the largest video chipset manufacturer in the world is Intel.
This is incorrect. Both nvidia and ati have turned their fortunes around, especially nvidia and are profitable. They are both making money and increasing revenue.
-ATI can't make a low power GPU.
Incorrect, ati does make low power gpu's, just not on the d'top scene at the moment. They have discreet mobile solutions that are low power'd. Also, keep in mind that max power draw is not that different.
-They don't make their own video cards anymore (sapphire makes them).
So what? When was the last time Nvidia made their own cards? It is not financially sound for them to do this when board makers like sapphire can do so.
-Their current line GPU temps are horrid (95C vs nvidia 65C) if Tom's is to be beleived.
Again, this is a moot point. The cards are not blowing up and within their tollerances.
-Their exchange policy is borderline criminal.
I personally have had no issues, though I understand you did.
-They have no mid range product line (too expensive, too slow) and low end cards won't run current games.
They have good mid-range products. The 1800 series is their mid-range dood and they are plenty fast enough. Their low-end cards are about as fast as nvidia's solutions and a hell of a lot better than intel's solutions.
-Crossfire is non existant. Try buying a master card to go with the ati card you bought last year like they promised you could. There aren't any.
Channel supply is bad for cross-fire apparently but I have seen them offered on various web vendors like newegg so I am not sure where the rumours are coming from.
-They appear to be going after the home media market and loosing interest in the PC add on card.
Apparently you have not heard of the r600 with unified shader tech coming to the market soon. You don't drop big dollars on r&d like that if you are moving away from the add-on market.
-Their home media product is over priced and chock full of DRM.
? Are you talking about the tv tuners? Because frankly speaking, I haven't had many issues with their products in comparison to others out there.
As is, DRM is not something that is proprietary to ATi, it is an industry-wide happening and you will see it being more and more prevalent as vista and other items come forth.
-ATI had SB chipset issues and was depending on ULI who Nvidia acquired a few months back.
Dunno bout this, no comment.
Lee's prediction -
this is a strategic alliance out of the current weakness on the part of ATI and AMD (has lot the lead to core duo). DAMDIT (as I like to think of this acquisition) is going to target the home entertainment market hoping to get sufficient volume to build the financial base needed to fight Intel and Nvidia. The PC line will be media (not performance) heavy and build on integated MBs just like Intel is making a killing at. AMD is trying to re-enter the MB chipset market that it left in humiliation.
A few things, there is no indication of what will happen. These companies do what is necessary for their bottom-line and market share. AMD has k8l being introduced and ati has good market share in various segments. Also, AMD is not losing share to Core 2 tech based procs in the consumer space.
Your speculation may be accurate for the integrated mb components but AMD left the mb space because it was simply not cost effective for them. Remember they were re-structuring when they first moved out of the market.
Unfortunately, DAMDIT is blind. The media market is consumer electronics and has eaten the lunch of other wannabe's like MS (loosing 100'S of millions a year). And they are just too far behind Intel to develop the massive silicon foundry technology "chipzilla" can swing.
Where are you getting your information from?
First, m$ can afford to seed the market at a loss because it knows in the future, if the seeding works, it will get big bucks back.
AMD has good R&D and has mapped out its future pretty well. Understand that AMD has a few fabs and one or two new facilities upcoming.
They are hardly dead in the water and have had good quarter on quarter growth for a while.
Intel does not need to buy nvidia and probably won't even consider it due to antitrust regulations since they already have 85% of the market.
Intel is not on the strongest footing itself. It is restructuring internally. Have you read the same reports I have? The lay-offs et al?
They have more money than AMD, better fabs and some good design teams. They also have good tech being developed off of the core 2 platform so expect them to be around for a while.
Long term outcome-
-Intel will stay Intel.
-Nvidia will end up the only high end video card maker.
-AMD will continue to eek out an existance and occasionally might beat Intel with a product but mainly because Intel doesn't want to be hit with an anti trust lawsuit like MS was.
What? AMD battered Intel with its k8 marchitecture because Intel didn't want to be hit with an anti-trust lawsuit?
And ATi is bowing out of the high-end graphics market? Why? That's completely illogical.
And to us, the enthusiasts?
-High end video card prices will stay at their unacceptable current $500-800 price range and probably hit $1000.
-Market competition will continue to dwindle (ULI, Voodoo, SIS).
-We better learn to like game consoles or find new hobbies.
The other ihv's suck. They have niche markets. High end cards are at the prices they are at because consumers are willing to pay that much. Pure and simple market dynamics. Why reduce the cost when you can make that much?
Further, there is nothing wrong with consoles. I got into gaming BECAUSE of consoles like atari and the commodore.
The future is in portable computing and servers. Laptops for now, but in a few years the wireless kybd/monitor projection set with a PDA sized computer you set on a desk and type on the virtual keyboard. Bulk storage will all be online with google or yahoo type storages and portable email.
DRM will kill the desktop as we know it.
Thats one probable direction.